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Houma Nation Tribe holds Thanksgiving feast in St. Bernard, hoping to pass on tradition to its young people

Pete Billiot, left, Houma Nation Tribal Council representative for St. Bernard and Plaquemines, holds a Native American drum and Bryan Billiot of Grenta a flute. (Photo by Steve Cannizaro)
((Photo by Steve Cannizaro))

Brandy Bourgeois of Chalmette, a Houma Indian, said she is glad the tribe is trying to maintain its culture and pass it on to its young people through gatherings like the Thanksgiving dinner she attended recently with her husband, Nicholas, and their children, in St. Bernard Parish.

Brandy Bourgeois of Chalmette, a Houma Indian, looks over Indian art works at the Thanksgiving dinner in St. Bernard Parish.
Photo by Steve Cannizaro

“I like where I come from,’’ Bourgeois said as she looked over an exhibit of Native American art works at the dinner held Nov. 16 in the multi-purpose building at the Islenos complex in eastern St. Bernard.

She said, “I am from a long line of Houma Indians,’’ that settled in St. Bernard, Plaquemines and many other parishes of coastal Louisiana, including Terrebonne, St. Mary, Lafayette and Jefferson, as long as thousands of years ago, according to historians.

“I am interested in my culture and I want my children to know about the culture,’’ Bourgeois said. “My children were interested in coming. I am all for getting groups together and I thank the people who made it happen.’’

For the second consecutive year, the Houma Nation Tribal Council, in which Pete Billiot, 74, of eastern St. Bernard is the representative for St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes and parts of the West Bank, held a Thanksgiving dinner.

This time, the tribe invited the Los Islenos Society of St. Bernard to participate, making for a large turnout. The groups ate and mingled and enjoyed Native American music, including Bryan Billiot of Gretna on the flute and Pete Billiot on the drum.

Participants get their food during a Thanksgiving feast hosted by the Houma Indians in St. Bernard Parish. Photo by Steve Cannizaro

Proceeds from a raffle will help support a youth summer camp the tribe has been holding for several years.

Pete Billiot said there were probably 400 Houma Indians living in St. Bernard at the time of Hurricane Katrina, but the number is reduced now.

Getting together for the Thanksgiving dinner, he said, “was important to keep our people together to remember our heritage – especially the young people.’’

He admitted, “It is hard to get young people interested in understanding where we come from.’’

Pete Billiot and his wife, Verna, are also members of the Islenos Society, he said, saying it made sense to invite the Islenos group to jointly have a dinner.

He said Houma Indians were in eastern St. Bernard as hunters and trappers before the Islenos, or Islanders from the Spanish colony of the Canary Islands, arrived in the 1780s. “Our people helped show them how to build the palmetto huts’’ associated with early Isenos settlers.

“My wish is for this (the dinner) to get bigger and bigger each year,’’ Pete Billiot said.

Frances Johnson of Waveland, Miss., a former Tribal Council representative in the 1980s and 1990s, attended and said of the Thanksgiving get-together: “I think it’s wonderful. It was like a family reunion’’ because it brought Houma Indians and Islenos from various areas to eat and have fun.

The information in this article and
pictures were provided by Steve Cannizaro.